Product Description

The fan favorite Mag•Blast is back with more screaming space action! Now the unique "Make a Silly Noise or Miss!" Blast Targeting System will be accompanied by the even sillier art of renowned cartoonist John Kovalic. Famed creator of Dork Tower, John Kovalic's work has appeared in many games, but never before have his bubble-eyed heroes faced bug-eyed space monsters!

Mag•Blast 3rd Edition has all of the fast-paced fun and powerful ships of the previous editions, now with new artwork! It includes 8 new flagships with exciting and tricky powers, 7 ship types, 20 different action card types including fighters and bombers, and of course 3 blast card types, including the famous Mag•Blast!

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Product Reviews

The new second edition of Mag Blast is back and greatly improved. Fans of the old game will be pleased to hear there are new events and four new flagships. Though the cards are not quite as sturdy as the old ones they are definitely prettier. They are also a bit smaller which, in my opinion, is better as it leaves more room for the ever expanding fleets. There are also new rules for games with more than four that prevent an early demise for weaker players and the game now allows for up to eight.

Mag Blast is endless fun that takes a long time to tire of; I recommend it for both casual and serious gamers. FFG is gaining a name for high quality games, at least in regards to game play. Hopefully the quality of their components will eventually come up to the level of European standards. Funagain should be picking this one up shortly.

I am very pleased with the ease of play and the fun that is Magblast. I have talked with friends and we agree that Magblast is well worth your time and money. We are looking forward to maybe a small expansion to this set, that would add more cards and ships as well as races.

The rules are simple, the game play is great, and the whole thing is very entertaining.

MagBlast is a space-combat game. You have a Flagship that shows you what race you are, and what your racial abilities are (somewhat unbalanced, I thought, but not too bad). There are six races that you choose from randomly. Your Flagship needs to be protected: if it is destroyed you are out of the game. You have four sides to protect and they are called zones: Yellow for the front, Blue & Green for the sides, and Red for the rear. No zone has any advantage or disadvantage, as all damage dealt to the Flagship is counted the same.

You use ships to protect your Flagship's zones and to attack your opponent's zones of the matching color. There are: Scout ships, Destroyers, Cruisers, Carriers, and finally, Dreadnaughts. Scout ships are able to move better than the other ships, but they are also the weakest. Destroyers are good for combat; Cruisers are the all-purpose kind of ship; Carriers have no actual attack value, except that they use special cards from your hand called 'Fighters' (This can be VERY powerful if you have multiple Fighter cards in your hand!). The last ship, the Dreadnaught, is the one that can deal out the hurt. It is the only ship that can fire a Mag-Cannon Blast (the most powerful kind of attack) whenever you have one in your hand. (There is a race that can use a Mag-Cannon Blast with a Scout ship, but the ship is then destroyed).

You play cards from your hand that will represent: The types of attacks that you are performing, cards that can save you from some damage, cards that repair damage, cards that can extend damage to your opponent (possibly even destroying a Flagship with ONE SHOT!) and a few others. Most cards are limited to two in each deck (there is only one deck in a game). There are even a few cards that can be played during an opponent's turn, the most powerful being the Temporal Flux card. This card can be played immediately after an opponent plays ANY action card. VERY handy, only two in the deck! Is your opponent wreaking havoc on your ships? Throw a minefield into his path! That will keep him from attacking you!

We tried this at a Game Day with 6 people. It was very easy at the beginning to take people out because they hadn't the time or chance to bring out reinforcements or play any card. I personally did not care for this. I think that when we play with a group of 4 or more, that there should be a no attacks rule for the first round. We'll have to see.

Overall, as I have already said, this game is great! I would highly recommend it to anyone! The reason that I did not give it a 5 rating is because of a few of the things that I have pointed out, as well as the price tag (mostly for the price). I think $16.95 for a deck of 110 cards and some rules is a bit much, but you can have hours of entertainment with this game. So far no one has grown tired of it! I don't regret spending my money!

One other thing to note - there are going to be some expansion sets released for the game. No, they are not collectible, they just can enhance the game. I heard that they may be stand-alone games, but that person I talked to wasn't sure. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what they add to the game!